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Panasonic Lumix GX7 Is the Rebirth of Slick

Almost exactly four years ago, Panasonic came out with the Lumix GF1. It was the company’s second mirrorless Micro Four-Thirds system camera, but it was the first Lumix mirrorless camera that was significantly smaller than a DSLR.

Compact, yet stacked with plenty of manual controls to help woo entry-level DSLR buyers over to the fledgling mirrorless market, it was a trailblazing camera for its time. It also looked great. The GF1 was arguably the first mirrorless camera to showcase the potential of what these new, small-but-serious interchangeable-lens cameras could do.

Since then, the Lumix GF series has (d)evolved into a more beginner-friendly lineup of cameras. They’re almost point-and-shoot sized, they have touchscreen-heavy interfaces aimed at the novice crowd, and they lack the knobs and buttons that ultimately give you fast access to manual settings. But the true spirit of the original GF1 ain’t dead — Panasonic has moved most of those awesome features over to its Lumix GX series.

The Panasonic Lumix GX7 is the latest camera in the GX line. Its predecessor is the Lumix GX1 from 2011, and this new body is apparently such an upgrade that Panny was able to skip over five whole version numbers. The 16-megapixel GX7 looks sharp, both in terms of aesthetics and specs. There have been a couple of Sony NEX cameras with built-in electronic viewfinders, but the Lumix GX7 is the first mirrorless camera I’ve seen with a 90-degree tilting built-in eyepiece. That goes along with its 3-inch tilting touchscreen, which isn’t the only way to dial in exposure adjustments; the GX7 has a physical mode dial and wheels for adjusting settings.

Like the similar Olympus PEN EP-5, the GX7 has a mechanical shutter with a top speed of 1/8000 of a second, Wi-Fi features that let you control the camera with a smartphone app and offload images wirelessly, and a fast autofocus system that works by tapping the touchscreen. The GX7 also has body-based image stabilization, although I doubt it’s as super-powered as the PEN EP-5’s five-axis mechanical system.

Its burst mode tops out at five frames per second with focus locked on the first frame, slower than the PEN EP-5’s nine fps shooting speed. But the GX7 offers a lot more for videographers: 1080p AVCHD Progressive video recording at 60fps and a high 28Mbps bitrate, and the ability to also record 1080p at 24fps and 30fps in 24Mbps AVCHD mode.

Due in October, the magnesium-alloy-bodied GX7 will go for $1,000 for the body only and $1,100 as a kit with a basic 14mm-to-42mm zoom lens (with a 2X focal length multiplier for all Micro Four-Thirds lenses). And while Micro Four-Thirds system cameras used to be a tough sell compared to DSLRs, due to a lesser lens selection, that isn’t the case anymore. There’s a ton of Micro Four-Thirds glass to choose from now — including a ridiculously fast f1.2/42.5mm portrait lens that Panasonic just announced too.